requiem & rebirth
by saffdragon
Summary: One day alive, the next day dead, each twin by turns; they both hold honors equal to the gods.
1. part one

**requiem & rebirth.**

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"... Are you listening? Kanon!"

Sprawled across his back, he could see the sky most clearly. The grass was soft and fresh; its scent reached him even as his face was upturned, marred by cuts and the faintest blotches of dirt. It seemed almost like a foolish sort of luxury, something that should no longer exist but could still be found in the most common of places.

Kanon didn't know why he hadn't bothered standing. It was an old routine— Saga had grown disapproving upon hearing of his misdeeds within town, angry words had turned into the throwing of fists, and he simply hadn't seen the point in getting up again.

But Saga was predictable. After all, it was an old routine that hardly ever changed. Kanon anticipated it even as Saga sat down not far away and turned to look at him, hair tousled by the wind and melding with the color of the darkening sky. Beautiful and regal as always.

When Kanon turned to smirk at him, Saga's expression immediately shifted into annoyance.

"I'm listening, brother," he finally said after a moment.

Saga sighed.

It was becoming rare occasion to see his brother without the powerful shell of the Gemini cloth surrounding him, marking his status. Even without it, he was easily recognizable among the Sanctuary and the small villages nearby— A man with such a large presence was hard to miss, unlike Kanon, who remained all but out of sight. He didn't mind.

He did mind that the moments between them were also becoming all the more rare. Saga was diligent. He guarded the objects of his duties tirelessly, a pillar of strength and compassion. Like an angel.

But Kanon knew better than anyone that such confines would wither those beautiful wings, kill him slowly like a caged bird.

He held out a hand, and Saga stared at it for a moment before carefully entwining their fingers. Perhaps it was in these moments that they felt most alive— united as brothers— firm and strong, even as Saga slowly withered and died without even acknowledging it. It was a shame.

Kanon would take it upon himself to restore that beauty and find a way for them to live again.

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"Unhand me, Saga!!"

There was struggling. But no matter how fervently he twisted and pulled, Kanon could not escape his brother's solid hold at his back, unmoving arms hooked around his own. He had been all but dragged the entire way here, throat raw and his limbs thoroughly exhausted.

They were wading in water knee-deep now, the waves pushing against them and spraying them with a mist that should have been gentle. But Saga's silence was disconcerting. He hadn't said a word since trapping Kanon in his grasp, and Kanon could feel the faint, white edges of panic as they neared the cold bars at the base of Cape Sounion. He wouldn't, would he? Even at opposite ends of the spectrum they were brothers, black and white but two parts of one whole.

_You are a devil._

Kanon immediately dug his heel into the ground and threw himself back. There was a clang as Saga's back hit the bars of the prison, the Gemini cloth raking against dark metal. "_Kanon._" Something in his voice shook. Kanon couldn't believe it.

_Kanon, you are a devil._

When Kanon was tossed inside, he hit the ground, submerged in salty water that stung his eyes and irritated his wounds. He scrambled back almost immediately, pushing arms desperately through the bars until he could latch to one of his brother's wrists.

"What do you think you're doing, Saga?!" Rage, betrayal, that reoccurring panic. _Let me out! Why is this happening? How could you—_

It couldn't have been his brother that looked back at him so coldly, jerking his arm from Kanon's grasp and stepping beyond his reach.

_You are a devil._

When the day had become completely swallowed and he could no longer see the sky, he couldn't hear the sound of his own screams over the crashing of the waves.

_And you are dead to me._

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He had seen everything. Things should not have worked out this way.

"Brother, you are a fool."

Kanon had only embraced his true nature. And Saga, completely open and consumed by darkness, had been just as beautiful as he had imagined— What wrong was there in that? If Saga had heeded his words back then, nothing could have diminished the force of their combined efforts.

But, like a dying star, that large, unmistakable presence had burned as bright as the sun before disappearing completely. The distinct emptiness and silence it left behind was more prominent than anything he had ever felt before.

It didn't matter.

He would follow in the wake of something to which he had only been a shadow, and accomplish what his brother could not. Truly, in the end Saga had only reaped the way to his own demise. It had been inevitable, just as certainly as the awakening of that darkness had been inevitable. Certainly.

_I am a devil._

He forced himself to laugh even as the tears rolled down his cheeks.


	2. part two

**requiem & rebirth.**

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_Was this how you wanted it?_

Saga could count the moments between clasped hands and aching fists, but in the end they all amounted up to nothing.

There was a difference, he thought— some glaring difference between love and what love had become now, in this instant. It was like waking from an endless nightmare; one moment he had stood strong and just, and in the next he had simply blinked and opened his eyes to blood caking his hands. The more he stared, the more apparent it became, until at last his entire vision was swimming in crimson red.

He thought that he could point them out, one by one— innocents, comrades, and an old man with a dying warmth in his eyes. One who had looked at him and simply known the conclusion of both their fates, as if the fragile strings of their lives had rested in the palms of his withered hands.

He was gone now, the man that had left his mark on two generations— nothing but blood mixed with that of those innocents, comrades, and friends. All that he had left behind were his influences and his words.

There had been a darkness sleeping inside Saga all along, and he had ignored it.

_I am a fool._

Perhaps his brother, lost in the wake of times he couldn't remember, was sleeping peacefully now. If there was something so dangerous within them, a broken mirror of each other, then perhaps it was better this way. Though that darkness had been destroyed and there was only love remaining in the aftermath, it had already been scarred with an irreversible taint no longer worthy of a goddess.

_Please pardon me._

Athena was truly as beautiful as he imagined— much more beautiful than himself. How could he possibly remain a danger to her? The potentiality to crush the thing he loved most was terrifying.

_I am a devil._

The last of the blood to stain his hands would be his own.

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Sinners don't deserve to sleep.

Perhaps it had been that knowledge that had numbed his surprise even as he gripped at cold earth and breathed in fresh air. No words could come close to describing the agony of being pulled forcefully back to life, drawn from oblivion— dizzy, lungs starved and mouth dry. In that moment he had realized just how insufficient his punishment had been up until this point, something for which he could not be pardoned.

"Saga."

It could not have been anything but Hell, he decided— The second most terrifying thing was to come face to face with an old man with a dying warmth in his eyes. Just like before— But, once his vision steadied and cleared, he realized that age had fallen away and dying warmth had been replaced with a remorseful fire.

_"This is the first step of the end of your lives."_

The world below was as black and as suffocating as the armor they now donned. It might have been ironic how the sturdy plates threatened to choke him at the same time they guarded him, but to rely on such a thing was enough of a dishonor.

Thankfully, he had thrown honor away some time ago.

"Save her."

That was all that mattered— Not the surplice, nor the ugly world below where he could no longer see the sky. He would live again only for her, even under the guise of something he thought he had left behind. It may have been just as it was meant to be.

And then he entered Gemini Temple and a part of his world crashed, a part of his resolve trembled.

_Saga, you are a devil._

Even despite the fact that it was only an illusion standing there (_strong, just_), he was beautiful. Perhaps there had been nothing more that Saga had wanted to see— something he only realized in that moment. The weight of the tears that threatened to overwhelm him was heavy even as he readied the attack that would strike that man down, the opposite end of the spectrum now reversed, black and white but two parts of one whole.

He didn't bother to contain them once he had exited the temple and once again stepped beyond Kanon's reach, the one he had forsaken those countless times and again.

_But you are my brother._

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Saga didn't hear the exclamations, the attempted comfort— didn't see the men around him fall apart, turning on each other in rage, betrayal, and misunderstanding. The only thing that encompassed his vision was the corpse of the thing he loved most, the blood that he had hoped never to see stain his hands along with so many others.

_You weren't wrong._

It wasn't long before he finally collapsed, hands grasping at fleeing currents of that same blood. His body was shaking. But even this suffering was perhaps not enough; there was so much more he should do, the added weights of so many more things to atone for, but there was no time left.

_Stand up._

Warm hands clasped his arms, but he didn't bother glancing up.

"Are you listening, brother?"

It was ironic. Ironic that they should be in this position now, ironic that he would wish for more time to live when he had died so willingly. It wasn't anything he deserved.

He reached out and grasped his brother's shirt, a single moment of weakness. The others around them were also starting to settle now, tears lining their faces and hearts streaked with regret. Soon Saga would stand again. He would resume his task— once again descending from this clear sky— and then die, just like before.

And that would have to be enough.

"I am listening, Kanon."


End file.
